| Chapter 1 Optics - Reflection |
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When light reflects by striking
a mirror or other reflective surface the principle is very simple.
The angle of the incoming light ray is equal to the angle of the light
after reflection. A normal
is a line that is perpendicular to the surface of the object (mirror).
Therefore the gray line represents a mirror the normal (green line)
is perpendicular to the surface of the mirror. The Law
of Reflection states that angle
of incident (incoming ray) is equal to the angle
of reflection (the outgoing ray). The angle is measured between
the incident ray and the normal and the reflected ray and the normal. |
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| When light strikes a curved
mirror the rules are the same. You can think of a mirror as being composed
of multiple straight sections which are extremely small. The reflection
occurs in the same way. Each little straight section has the incident ray
equaling the reflected ray. The normal for each of these sections will be
the radius of the curve for spherical shaped mirror, such as those used
for security in department stores. This area of physics is called geometric
optics and how the images are formed in a security mirror or a make mirror
is interesting to understand but do not lead to the direct principle of
understanding fiber optical cable. |
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